ECO Town Protest March in London - Today

by Craig Chapman - 08:33 on 30 June 2008

Feedback from the below featured anti-ECO Town march in London suggests that Shadow Housing Minister Grant Shapps supports the protests, however Labour's Caroline Flint was her usual brick wall self when questioned, refusing to answer any questions with an answer resembling the question's content - mostly which dug huge holes in Labour's own requirements for each proposed site, so little of which is met by the Curborough area.

We do ask whether the Tories have a real interest too, as their common trait has been to simply expose the Government's unpopularity without making any concrete polices or commitments. Certainly Lichfield Tory MP Michael Fabricant supports the protests whole heartedly, but then again, he is as much a worry to many Tories as he is to Labour, given how he speaks his mind and displays his conscience so well.

Caroline Flint has "promised" to visit all of the proposed ECO Town sites, where locals can attend question and answer sessions. Perhaps somone should spike her drink beforehand and then we might get somewhere ????

Today, Monday 30th June, will see large number of people marching upon Parliament to protest about the proposed ECO Town projects that our undemocratic government think that we “need.” 

The original plan was for 15 sites to be studied to provide “affordable” housing with places of work on their doorsteps and all services within non-driving distance. This was then whittled down to 10 “brown-field” sites on which to build between 5,000 -20,000 new homes each. 

Residents from each proposed location have formed groups against these plans and along with pro-Countryside and Green groups, will march upon parliament to deliver petition and endless evidence against these proposals. 

As usual, our government, in their overbearing manner have no regard for tax payer’s opinions and at a time when the UK has one of the lowest birth rates for a very long time, the building of and basic need for so much new housing, mostly on prime farming land (overlapping from small brown-field centre points) seems to be a complete waste of time, effort and money. 

Two Popular Alliance members have been involved in campaigning against one such site, just north of Lichfield in Staffordshire. The plans are to build an initial 5,000 houses across a “disused” aerodrome around Fradley & Curborough – as advertised by the government in local newspapers, withe the prospect of up to 20,000 homes by 2020, equalling the population of nearby Burton on Trent. The aerodrome has in fact been a heavily built upon industrial estate for several years and therefore any building of houses will result in several square miles of nearby good farming land being taken over, which is conveniently omitted from the government’s advertised plans. 

With regards to the farming land, the way that this sector is being treated by our government and the EU, most farmers around Fradley appear glad to have a buyer for their land, however as the world food crisis escalates, surely we need pro-farming policies and the preservation of good farming land. 

The main fear of the local residents around Fradley and Curborough is that this project will become just another commuter town satellite of Birmingham, with present road links and facilities already being pushed to the limit. On the day of a march through Lichfield recently, at which over 200 carried placards and collected petition entries and local Tory MP Michael Fabricant gave a good, common sense speech, the spatial problems already faced by the city’s compact streets were more than evident, so where another potential 20,000 (or even 80,000) additional shoppers might park their cars is anyone’s guess.  

Popular Alliance has every sympathy for the locals in these matters, but we also consider the wider points political too. 

Who are these houses to be built for ? For the last 20 years our cities and towns have become overcrowded as many immigrants moved in, which has resulted in large numbers of “indigenous whites” moving towards the outer surburbs and expanding villages. Are these Eco Towns a further “refuge” for those who have seen their communities turn into run-down ghettos ? This is not an anti-racial comment, it is a simple fact and one that our government again refuses to address.  

As I said above, we have the lowest birth rate for many years, so why do we need all of these new towns ? Milton Keynes, Telford and others were built following the baby booms of the post war years. The only population growth that the UK is now experiencing is the number of Asians, Africans and Eastern Europeans being encouraged into our country by a government incapable of getting lazy British scroungers off their backsides and into work. Indeed, several of the Fradley aerodrome factories already bus-in many Asian workers from Burton, Walsall & north Birmingham, whilst all of the new homes already built upon this land can only be afforded by those working in top jobs in central Birmingham !! How will they react if they have local fields dug up to provide “cheap” housing options on their doorsteps for the factory workers ? 

The housing market is presently crashing all around us. The “credit crunch” has scared people into staying put, with many facing negative equity and re-possessions. Leading building firms are refusing to build more homes until they have sold the ones they have standing empty. Brick manufacturers have halved productivity in the last 2 years and are being ordered by the government to produce stock for the Olympics. Concrete will be in short supply for several years as river authorities try to build flood defence structures to protect houses that have flooded several times in recent years. 

Is this all one big scam to pander to EU directives to cope with mass migration from the eastern European countries ?  

Is this also one big scam for our government to invent another 250,000 house moves that they can tax ? 

In-line with our policies that always compliment each other, Popular Alliance says :- 

i) Stop the out-of-control immigration and workforce related excuses for it, return those who are here illegally and get the lazy claimers back into work. 

ii) Support farmers to do their work and protect the farming land. Our country needs to become a lot more self-reliant regarding food production, not moving more hungry mouths from across the world onto our prime farming land. 

iii) There are plenty of empty houses in our towns and cities, already located close to jobs. We should be cleaning up these areas and improving local transport systems do develop these areas into reclaimed Eco-Zones.

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